Engineering genes
In the 1970s, genetic engineering feats started to come rapid-fire. Scientists were swapping genes between cells (3/20/71, p. 193), making synthetic copies of genes that could function in living creatures (9/1/73, p. 132) and learning to cut and paste genes using chemical scissors called restriction enzymes (3/20/76, p. 188). This quick progress raised hopes of new, better medicines, but also created fears of Frankenbugs escaping laboratories and introducing unstoppable...